Flash in the Pan: Plane

I’ve joined Flash in the Pan Hosted by Red Dwyer. Each flash begins with a single word. It should fit into the quarterly theme of Boys and Their Toys. The word must be used exactly as listed. All flashes must stand alone to be accepted. The word for my 150 word post today is PLANE. This is a fictional story using the actual historical photograph below.

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Two-year-old Jimmy held his mom’s hand as they waited for the plane to land. Too young to understand what a POW was or about the Vietnam War, he was meeting daddy for the first time today.

Lieutenant James Facet left for his third tour of duty a few months before Jimmy was born. Shortly before his son’s birth in 1971, his plane was shot down over Laos and the Lieutenant spent the rest of his time as a POW in the camp referred to as the Hanoi Hilton. Having survived an ordeal, James would see his son for the first time today.

Catherine Facet was twenty-five years old and barely knew her husband. She married James after his first tour of duty, the summer she graduated high school. She had been so in love but very young.

The POWs disembarked the plane to cheering crowds. Three strangers met and embraced.

Newly freed prisoners of war celebrate as their C-141A aircraft lifts off from Hanoi, North Vietnam, on Feb. 12, 1973, during Operation Homecoming. The mission included 54 C-141 flights between Feb. 12 and April 4, 1973, returning 591 POWs to American soil. U.S. Air Force photo (Released)